The other day, we were thinking back to our first custom SDK project. I thought it might be interesting to share how it started. And, as with many things it started with a client coming to us with a problem…
The Problem:
We have been engaged to develop a dashboard for a client. One of the requirements supplied by the client was being able to filter out information on the next dashboard based on a multi-selector value from the previous dashboard. The tool they were using, MicroStrategy, did not support that type functionality.
The Solution:
We tried many ways to come up with a solution. One of which was a custom URL leveraging current existing MicroStrategy functionality. However, none of the solutions would satisfy the business requirements. As a result, we had to create a MicroStrategy plugin using MicroStrategy SDK framework. At this time, using MicroStrategy SDK was new to us. In addition, many people who used SDK knew there was very little documentation on MicroStrategy SDK.
In order for us to develop the plugin, we had to understand how MicroStrategy worked in the back-end, which we had a lot of fun doing because it helped us understand the ins and outs of how it works and performs. Project X Ltd provided us (consultants) support and resources (MicroStrategy SDK Guru from MicroStrategy, java developers) to help us understand the SDK framework. In addition, the company gave us the opportunity to grow and learn to expand our skill set through this hands on experience. This is just one way I have grown within my role at Project X.
After all the analysis and different approaches, we were able to develop a plugin that was able to pass multiple selected values as prompt answers to another dashboard. This plugin that we developed accomplished the following:
- Satisfy business requirements
- Reduce the size of datasets, which leads to better performance of the dashboard
- Gave us experience and exposure on the MicroStrategy SDK framework
- Opportunity for Project X Ltd employees to grow and learn new technology
Since this took place, I have had more experiences similar to this where I am learning and growing within my role and I look forward to many more.
-Nelson Ning
